McClain keeps it Raider, faces charges in Alabama

Lt. John Crouch of the Decatur Police Department told Comcast SportsNet that McClain has been charged and was held in custody after allegedly assaulting an individual, holding a gun to his head and firing a shot next to his ear.
“I can tell you that Rolando McClain is under arrest,” Crouch said. “He’s been charged with third degree assault, menacing, reckless endangerment and discharging a firearm in city limits.”

The bond is only $2,000, which indicates that these crimes are probably not that serious, but I suspect that NFL will be suspending Mr. McClain onces it gains the facts. The Raiders sure are penalty-prone, even when they're in Alabama on Wednesday of a game week (and what's up with that)?

1. I’m not in the arguing business, I’m in the saying what I think business.
2. I get my information from my eyes.

Thanks Tom. Hadn&#8217t realized that third degree assault was just a misdemeanor.

Posted by Drizzt396 on 2011-12-04 08:15:51

@drizz there is a lot of factors that can go into bond amount. The fact that the current charges are all misdemeanor in nature. The judge has final say in those amounts, so it is a very subjective based on Judges philopsoy. Location in the US plays another factor. The fact that he has ties to the community with relatives. He is also very visible because he plays in the NFL, so he would be not considered to be a flight risk. The other factor is we don&#8217t know what the role in this situation that alledged assult victim played. Really luck of the draw which it sounds like you weren&#8217t.

Posted by tom3565 on 2011-12-02 14:18:22

Hey Tom, could you enlighten us as to why the bail was set so low (and by enlighten I mean uninformed guess)? I committed a less serious offense and had my bail set at about twenty-five times what McClain&#8217s bail has been set at&#8230

Posted by Drizzt396 on 2011-12-02 06:31:42

I would hazard to guess that more charges will be coming at the completion of the investigation. These would all be preliminary charges that he was charged with by the arresting officer at the scene. Gun rights would have little to do with this incident with what knowledge we have. I am a former police officer that lives in a heavy gun right state, those rights wouldn&#8217t affect this case as we know it now.

Posted by tom3565 on 2011-12-02 04:21:37

I meant, as you suggest, the gun laws may not help a person of color as much, but any worries about racism are probably superseded by the power of gun protections.

Anyway, kind of a disturbing story.

Posted by underdog on 2011-12-02 01:57:14

Yeah, was gonna say, Ted&#8212Alabama&#8217s lax gun laws are rather frightening to me, to be honest. Maybe less so for a person of color but these days it&#8217s more about gun rights. So we&#8217ll see. Also still don&#8217t all have the facts of the case in so far, but sure doesn&#8217t look good.

A Raider fan I &#8220know&#8221 who frequents a blog for the baseball team we both root for was openly worried about this incident purely from a &#8220how will it affect my football team&#8221 perspective and was relieved when he thought that it sounded like McClain would play on Sunday. Which, odds are he won&#8217t. But I thought the dude&#8217s lack of perspective was disturbing&#8212though probably really common.

Posted by underdog on 2011-12-02 01:40:49

It&#8217s a lot easier to get in trouble for gun-related incidents in NYC than it is in a place like Alabama. There are places in the south where something like this would be widely viewed as boys being boys, engaging in some horseplay.

Well, maybe not for a black guy; but McClain has money, and money buys the best justice, so in his personal case, he&#8217ll probably be okay, when it&#8217s all said and done.

And a $2000 bond for shooting a gun next to someone, should be more than $2000 bond for even brandishing a firearm, let alone &#8220assault w/ a deadly weapon&#8221. (Remember an unloaded gun can still be considered a deadly weapon, and assault is described as &#8220assault is a crime causing a victim to fear violence&#8221.

So either something is way out of wack, or Alabama is more backwards than I originally thought.

Posted by Chuck "DeadDrunk" Breedlove on 2011-12-01 23:44:46

silverandblackpride.com has a more detailed report. It sounds horrible. He had the guy begging for his life when McClain fired the gun next to his ear.

Posted by magster on 2011-12-01 23:37:50

**will be** - since we don&#8217t know why.

Posted by Orange and Blue on 2011-12-01 23:37:47

The why is the interesting part of this.

Posted by Orange and Blue on 2011-12-01 23:37:23

To me, this sounds worse than what Plaxico did and got rung up for.

Posted by magster on 2011-12-01 23:35:00

Fitting that it&#8217s a Raider who did this.

Posted by DavidInLA on 2011-12-01 23:20:13

Discharging a gun next to some guy&#8217s ear if he was intending to make the guy think he was getting his head blown off, that would be a pretty serious crime here in CO. Odd that the bond was set so low if that were the case.

Posted by magster on 2011-12-01 23:14:05

Not trying to defend him, but the only facts we got from that article were from those of the victim. Never know what went down or why.

Posted by AndrewR0488 on 2011-12-01 23:09:39

he was there for his grandfathers funeral. I asked the same thing when i first saw the report.